TV salaries fall, radio stagnant

Salary survey tracks newsroom pay

July 1, 2013 1:30 PM

By Bob Papper, Hofstra University

The latest RTDNA/Hofstra University Annual Survey found that local television news salaries actually fell 1.9% in 2012. With inflation a modest 2.1%, that meant that TV news salaries dropped in purchasing power by 4% last year. Radio salaries fared only slightly better, with an increase of 0.8% last year. That's not enough to compensate for 2.1% inflation, leaving radio news salaries down 1.3% in terms of real wages.

Television news salaries

Average

Median

Minimum

Maximum

News Director

$100,400

$85,000

$30,000

$400,000

Assistant News Director

76,100

65,000

30,000

225,000

Managing Editor

69,300

62,000

26,000

220,000

Executive Producer

57,000

50,000

22,000

200,000

News Anchor

87,100

64,000

15,000

1,000,000

Weathercaster

69,600

55,000

15,000

500,000

Sports Anchor

58,800

45,000

17,000

369,000

News Reporter

39,400

30,000

16,000

200,000

Sports Reporter

38,300

30,000

15,000

200,000

Assignment Editor

40,200

37,000

12,000

110,000

News Producer

35,100

31,000

18,000

140,000

News Writer

42,200

36,500

18,000

100,000

News Assistant

29,000

28,000

12,000

85,000

Photographer

34,500

30,000

15,000

95,000

Tape Editor

32,100

28,000

13,000

95,000

Graphics Specialist

34,900

31,800

15,000

95,000

Web/Mobile Writer

32,600

32,000

14,000

60,000

Web/Mobile Prod/Ed

37,900

35,000

16,600

90,000

Art Director

49,000

50,000

18,000

90,000

No matter how you look at it, it was a lousy year for TV news salaries. It's true that nine average salaries went up, four went down and one stayed the same. But the increases were almost all extremely small, and median salary is a better gauge of what's happening. Eleven median salaries went down with four each going up and staying the same. In an unusual move, the poor benefitted the most in the last year, with the biggest salary jumps (proportionally) for news writers and news assistants. Other than those two positions, only managing editors rose in both average and median salaries.

Five and ten year median television news salary comparisons 2003 to 2008 to 2013

Median Comparisons

2013

2008

5-Year Percentage Change

2003

10-Year Percentage Change

INFLATION

+9.6%

+27.3%

All TV news

+8.1

+21.8

News Director

$85,000

$74,000

+14.9

$64,000

+32.8

Assistant News Director

65,000

63,000

+3.2

57,000

+14.0

Managing Editor

62,000

58,000

+6.9

50,000

+24.0

Executive Producer

50,000

52,000

-3.8

47,000

+6.4

News Anchor

64,000

60,000

+6.7

50,000

+28.0

Weathercaster

55,000

53,300

+3.2

43,800

+25.6

Sports Anchor

45,000

40,000

+12.5

35,000

+28.6

News Reporter

30,000

29,500

+1.7

26,000

+15.4

Sports Reporter

30,000

29,000

+3.4

25,000

+20.0

Assignment Editor

37,000

34,000

+8.8

30,000

+23.3

News Producer

31,000

30,000

+3.3

27,000

+14.8

News Writer

36,500

24,000

+52.1

27,500

+32.7

News Assistant

28,000

25,500

+9.8

21,000

+33.3

Photographer

30,000

27,000

+11.1

25,000

+20.0

Tape Editor

28,000

25,000

+12.0

23,000

+21.7

Graphics Specialist

31,800

29,500

+7.8

25,000

+27.2

Web/Mobile Writer

32,000

33,800*

-5.3

30,000*

+6.7

Web/Mobile Prod/Ed

35,000

33,800*

+3.6

30,000*

+16.7

Art Director

50,000

42,000

+19.0

na

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Last year's dismal 5 and 10 year comparisons have now gotten worse. Last year, only four positions beat both 5 and 10 year inflation rates. It's the same this year -- but only because the relatively few writers and news assistants that were hired got nice jumps in pay. Only news directors and sports anchors really kept pace (and more) with inflation over both the last five years and the last decade. Assignment editors came reasonably close, but keeping up with inflation isn't much of a target -- even though relatively few positions managed to stay even close. In fairness, the median salaries of some positions fell because more of them were hired (like executive producers and meteorologists), and new hires tended to be staff expansions filled with lower paid, less experienced people.

Median TV news salaries by market size

Median by Market Size

1 – 25

26 – 50

51 – 100

101-150

150+

News Director

$200,000

$135,000

$100,000

$80,000

$62,000

Assistant News Director

130,000

86,300

62,500

48,000

40,000

Managing Editor

95,000

77,500

60,000

50,000

35,000

Executive Producer

88,800

65,000

51,500

40,800

30,000

News Anchor

180,000

122,500

85,000

55,000

40,500

Weathercaster

130,000

110,000

70,000

49,500

36,200

Sports Anchor

105,000

82,500

53,800

39,000

30,000

News Reporter

72,000

50,000

34,500

26,800

23,000

Sports Reporter

61,500

50,000

35,000

26,500

23,000

Assignment Editor

50,000

45,000

40,000

33,000

27,500

News Producer

50,300

44,500

33,000

27,000

23,000

News Writer

48,800

30,000

23,000

26,800

*

News Assistant

32,000

30,000

25,000

25,000

13,000

Photographer

49,000

45,000

31,500

27,000

25,000

Tape Editor

46,000

33,300

25,000

25,000

23,000

Graphics Specialist

55,000

24,000

31,800

29,000

21,500

Web/Mobile Writer

40,500

40,000

32,800

30,000

25,000

Web/Mobile Prod/Ed

43,000

50,000

35,000

29,000

28,000

Art Director

85,000

45,000

50,000

40,000

*

*insufficient data

As usual, not everyone fared the same. Last year's big salary winner was the smallest market group, 151+. Not this year. Salaries in those smallest markets were stagnant. The biggest winners were markets 1 - 25 (which did well last year as well) and markets 101 - 150. Markets 26 - 100 were also largely unchanged.

Median by Staff Size

51+

31-50

21-30

11-20

1-10

News Director

$155,000

$95,000

$75,000

$60,000

$50,000

Assistant News Director

97,500

58,000

45,000

41,200

*

Managing Editor

75,000

55,000

44,000

50,000

28,000

Executive Producer

70,000

50,000

40,000

40,000

31,500

News Anchor

140,000

76,500

47,900

42,500

26,000

Weathercaster

116,500

58,000

41,000

40,000

28,000

Sports Anchor

95,000

47,500

38,000

30,000

24,800

News Reporter

53,000

33,800

25,000

24,000

25,000

Sports Reporter

50,500

30,000

25,500

23,500

23,000

Assignment Editor

46,500

37,000

33,000

30,000

23,000

News Producer

45,000

30,500

26,000

27,500

32,000

News Writer

38,900

24,000

*

*

*

News Assistant

33,000

17,000

15,000

28,000

*

Photographer

45,000

30,000

27,500

27,800

30,000

Tape Editor

35,000

25,000

22,000

26,500

35,000

Graphics Specialist

36,500

27,300

30,500

20,400

18,000

Web/Mobile Writer

40,000

32,800

25,000

27,300

*

Web/Mobile Prod/Ed

43,000

35,600

26,000

32,500

*

Art Director

50,000

40,000

*

*

18,000

*insufficient data

Generally, the rich got richer, and the poor didn't. Almost all the salaries rose at the biggest stations, but the picture tended to be spottier after that. And it looks like the smallest stations took advantage of a weak economy and generally hired cheap.

Radio salaries

Overall, radio news salaries edged up 0.8% in 2012. But you really have to burrow into the numbers to see what took place. Major market salaries rose in 2012 and rose by quite a bit. The overall number was so much lower because median salaries actually fell in large, medium and small markets, although the small market results were a bit more mixed. As usual, the larger the market, generally, the higher the salary.Major markets are those with 1 million or more listeners. Large markets are those from 250,000 to 1 million; medium markets are from 50,000 to 250,000; and small markets have fewer than 50,000 listeners.

Radio Salaries

Average

Median

Minimum

Maximum

News Director

$43,000

$35,000

$15,000

$130,000

News Reporter

37,200

33,000

17,000

110,000

News Producer

39,000

40,000

26,000

70,000

News Anchor

50,400

45,000

26,000

120,000

Sports Anchor

36,700

35,000

17,000

75,000

Sports Reporter

59,500

59,500

24,000

95,000

Web Prod/Ed

48,700

45,000

30,000

85,000

Median by Market

Major

Large

Medium

Small

News Director

$67,000

$41,500

$35,500

$30,000

News Reporter

50,000

32,000

32,500

24,000

News Producer

40,000

41,500

33,500

*

News Anchor

50,000

66,800

38,000

35,000

Sports Anchor

*

*

27,500

35,000

Sports Reporter

*

*

24,000

*

Web Prod/Ed

40,000

56,500

*

*

*insufficient data

Five and ten year median radio news salary comparisons 2003 to 2008 to 2013

Median Comparisons

2013

2008

5-Year Percentage Change

2003

10-Year Percentage Change

INFLATION

+9.6%

+27.3%

All radio news

News Director

$35,000 -$37,000

$32,000

+9.4

$30,500

+14.8

News Reporter

33,000 -34,500

25,000

+32.0

22,000

+50.0

The comparisons this year are problematic because of two coincident factors. First, a disproportionate percentage of major market news directors are skewing this year's numbers out of line on an overall basis, and, second, that's throwing off the numbers of other positions, like producer, anchor and sports anchor, which are becoming less and less common in smaller and medium sized markets. The salaries by staff size are almost always highly variable, although there has almost always been a general tendency for the largest news operations to pay more. As with previous years, there is no consistent pattern to salaries based on the number of stations a news director supervises.

Median by Ownership

Standalone AM or FM

Combo AM/FM

Standalone + combo

Group of 3 or more

News Director

$35,000

$35,000

$35,000

$40,000

News Reporter

30,000

32,000

32,000

33,000

News Producer

40,400

42,000

40,400

37,500

News Anchor

45,900

54,700

50,300

50,500

Sports Anchor

32,500

25,000

30,000

37,500

Sports Reporter

*

*

*

59,500

Web Prod/Ed

51,000

65,000

58,000

40,000

*insufficient data

This is the second year that I've broken down the stations differently than in the past. I asked about standalone AM or FM, combo AM/FM and groups of 3 or more stations. This year, as in most years, group-owned stations usually paid more the independent ones.

Contracts

Contract numbers tended to languish in the recession, but they moved up noticeably in TV news last year and edged up again this time around. Almost all job categories rose in the percentage under contract. Note that non-competes are illegal in a number of states.

Contracts

Percent under contract

Percent with non-competes

Percent under contract with non-competes

News Director

37.4%

46.6%

92.8%

Assistant News Director

43.8

53.3

91.9

Managing Editor

36.4

42.9

88.9

Executive Producer

52.2

55.6

85.5

News Anchor

94.4

88.2

90.4

Weathercaster

94.1

86.9

90.4

Sports Anchor

90.7

86.7

91.6

News Reporter

83.0

80.3

91.3

Sports Reporter

72.9

75.0

91.2

Assignment Editor

27.5

38.2

89.3

News Producer

63.6

67.2

92.6

News Writer

11.5

9.1

100

News Assistant

0

13.3

0

Photographer

10.9

24.0

90.9

Tape Editor

1.5

12.5

100

Graphics Specialist

3.3

4.2

100

Web/Mobile Writer

31.5

37.8

93.8

Web/Mobile Prod/Ed

31.7

37.0

94.4

Art Director

28.6

23.1

100

Contracts

Percent under contract

Percent with non-competes

Percent under contract with non-competes

News Director

8.5%

17.8%

85.7%

News Reporter

20.0

28.6

83.3

News Producer

22.2

12.5

50.0

News Anchor

33.3

33.3

66.7

Sports Anchor

45.5

77.8

100

Sports Reporter

33.3

50.0

100

Web Prod/Ed

14.3

0

0

Up and down for various positions, overall, radio numbers this year are generally in line with last year.

Starting Pay

The TV positions above are listed in order of number hired, and the sequence is virtually identical to last year (and pretty similar to the last few years). The only meaningful change was that multimedia journalist moved from number 5 on the list last year to a distant number three this year. But it was only one ahead of number four, and MMJ was half the number of producers and well under half the number of reporters. Starting salaries were flat this year, with the overall average edging up $500 but the median staying exactly the same.

2013 starting salaries for new employees with no fulltime experience.

Position

Average

Median

Minimum

Maximum

All TV news

$25,000

$24,000

$15,000

$50,000

Reporter

23,200

22,500

16,500

34,000

News producer

25,200

25,000

19,500

45,000

Multimedia journalist

25,000

25,000

15,000

32,000

Photographer

25,600

24,000

16,000

50,000

News assistant

28,500

29,000

21,000

50,000

Multimedia journalist

25,000

25,000

15,000

32,000

Tape editor

26,300

25,000

21,000

45,000

Assignment editor

25,900

27,500

20,000

30,000

Studio technical

26,600

26,000

20,000

33,500

News anchor

24,800

24,000

19,000

30,000

News writer

32,000

31,000

25,000

40,000

News anchor

24,800

24,000

19,000

30,000

Web

26,300

25,000

25,000

29,000

Sports reporter

22,000

22,000

22,000

22,000

Other

24,500

24,000

15,000

50,000

Position

Average

Median

Minimum

Maximum

All radio news

$24,700

$24,000

$15,000

$40,000

News reporter

25,800

25,000

15,000

40,000

General news

24,200

24,000

17,500

32,000

Other

24,900

24,000

15,000

40,000

More than half of all new, starting positions in radio news were reporters. About a third as many news anchors were hired next, followed by news directors and then random positions. Average radio news starting salaries rose just $200 in the last year, and median starting salaries -- as with TV -- were unchanged.

Bob Papper is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Journalism, Media Studies, and Public Relations at Hofstra University and has worked extensively in radio and TV news. This research was supported by the School of Communication at Hofstra University and the Radio Television Digital News Association.

About the Survey

The RTDNA/Hofstra University Survey was conducted in the fourth quarter of 2012 among all 1,732 operating, non-satellite television stations and a random sample of 3,000 radio stations. Valid responses came from 1,377 television stations (79.5%) and 217 radio news directors and general managers representing 575 radio stations.
Some data sets (e.g. the number of TV stations originating local news, getting it from others and women TV news directors) are based on a complete census and are not projected from a smaller sample.